DATE:	THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1997
TIME:	01:36 1997-10-23 GMT THURSDAY (2136 HRS WEDNESDAY SHIP -4)
POSITION:	ANCHORED NORTH OF SANDY POINT IN THE GREAT WICOMICO RIVER, VIRGINIA
ENTERED BY:	Captain Jan Miles

Ahoy,

We arrived here late in the afternoon after a day of thrashing about in a fresh northwest breeze. The crew was happy that the day was finally at an end. It was just 5 pm - a sort of gift considering how often we sail till dark when we daysail between anchorages.

Since the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race awards ceremony in Norfolk, PRIDE has waited for a northeasterly gale to end and has been daysailing her way back up the Bay. She is not due in Cambridge till Friday which makes daysailing and anchoring every night along the way feasible. We spent Monday night in Cape Charles, Virginia. We stopped there because we were invited by the Harbormaster for a steak and clam supper. PRIDE was one of six vessels that participated in the race that took up the invitation.

Cape Charles is now a very sleepy town and harbor. Years ago it was a very active place because the railway line from the northeast came down the Delmarva peninsula and connected to a ferry barge at Cape Charles that crossed the Bay. There was also a lot of other ferry traffic that came from the mainland. About 15 years ago the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel-Bridge put an end to the ferries, and a switch in the passenger rail route from Delmarva to an inland route through Baltimore and Washington put an end to much of the rail traffic - although an occasional freight train runs through. For the last four years Laura and Greg Lohse have made their home in Cape Charles and they have been behind the effort to get tallships to stop there. They both have spent many years working with traditional sail vessels. I have known them for a number of years as professional colleagues. Once I knew the weather was reasonable for the stop, it was easy to decide to stop in.

The welcome was very warm and the steak and clams delicious. A tent had been set up and a band played. There was also a prayer and the tossing of a flower wreath into the harbor to bless the ships. A special recognition to the loss of the first PRIDE and four of her crew was made. (I found the well chosen words very touching.) The whole experience was so warm and welcoming that it will be easy to consider stopping at Cape Charles again - especially since Greg and Laura understand the needs of a vessel bound in from sea or out to sea so well.

There was not much sailing Tuesday. The wind had blown itself out. Although we set sail, we wound up motoring most of the way to the next anchorage in the mouth of the Piankatank River while the crew did some maintenance. We anchored just south of Deltaville.

On Wednesday we got underway right after breakfast by sailing away from the anchor. The weather people promised fresh northwesterly to north winds of 20 knots. They arrived as we made the center of The Bay. We sailed with just the four lowers and fore topsail up towards Tangier Island. By midday it was gusting to 25 knots se we struck the fore topsail and tacked over to the western shore. Tacking PRIDE in this much wind is really a chore for the crew. It did not help that the port staysail jib sheet was fouled due to being incorrectly attached earlier in the morning. Once that was fixed the crew furled the foretop. As we made our way west, the wind got fluky and dropped to 20 knots. So up the rig again to unfurl and reset the foretop but in the reefed configuration. We tacked again and headed north for Smith Point.

By that time it was now nearing 3 pm. As we passed the Great Wicomico River, I determined that if we kept going we would be sailing late into the night. Also the Bay would be quite rough as we crossed the mouth of the Potomac River. So I decided to come about and we sailed for the Great Wicomico. We were anchored and secure by the end of a normal working day.

It is now after supper and nearly all hands are asleep. Tomorrow promises to be a calmer day with 10 knot winds out of the north. We will try to sail again, but I suspect we will be motoring some too. If so, it will be possible to get some more maintenance done while we proceed. I wonder just how the cold will affect crew efficiency tomorrow?

Cheers
Captain Miles

Ahoy!

The weather is ugly! But we are snug and safe in harbor. Thus the weather is lovely!

Makes no sense? I think it makes a lot of sense. The experience I have of being in ugly weather with little or no protection makes for real enjoyment when similar weather comes along and there is protection. We are tied up to the Nauticus Pier here in Norfolk with all the other schooners, and everyone is feeling just fine from the good race down the Bay. It's great to be in a sheltered place to ride out this northeast to north gale now blowing some 35 knots near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.

AWARDS CEREMONY. Yesterday was the award ceremony and party for all of the schooner crews that participated in the 8th Annual Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race. As usual the awards given were for the first three finishers in each of four classes of schooners. The schooners are classed by size and type. The finishers were placed according to a complex handicap formula. The award ceremony started with awards for the slowest of the small vessel classes, Class C. So, the first award was given to the third place finisher. Amid cheers from the audience composed mostly of schooner crews and friends, the skipper comes forward to receive the award and have a photo taken of the occasion.

As the awards are given out, tension heighten in the audience about who is the actual leader in that class. By the time the awards for the bigger and faster boats arrive, there is a lot of anticipation in the crowd. The funny part of this tension is that nearly everyone already knows the outcome because most of the participants kept track of the finish times of each schooner when it was announced over the radio by the finisher soon after crossing the line. This was done because there was no finish-line boat on station to take their own readings as the participant crossed the line. Thus with the radio call to notify the race committee, anyone could calculate the probable order of finish by referring to the race handbook where the handicap is listed. But there is always something special about the ceremony held to recognize the top performers and their crews.

PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II was called up to receive third place honors in Class AA after the larger not so traditional Class A awards were called. Class AA is the class for the larger more traditional class of schooner. The cheers were a little louder than for previous finishers. There is no doubt PRIDE is a favorite with this crowd. But the cheers were really big for LADY MARYLAND captained by my friend and past shipmate in the first PRIDE, Chris Rowsom. That little vessel did a great job of getting down the Bay and staying close enough to PRIDE and another vessel that also beat PRIDE on corrected time, LIBERTY CLIPPER, to win First In class AA.

After all the classes were recognized there were still two prizes to give. These are often the most coveted and honored. They are for Line Honors and First Overall. Line Honors goes to the vessel that crossed the finish line first. First Overall goes to the best corrected time in the whole fleet of racers. Sometimes First Overall can go to a boat way back in the fleet. As I mentioned in my last report sent on Friday, PRIDE was first to finish and so was recognized as winning Line Honors. To a very loud cheer from the crowd, I went up to the front a second time and received a very nice wooden carving with a beautiful German clock that tells date, month, day as well as phase of the moon. First Overall went to IMAGINE...! from Annapolis, who also got First In Class A. She crossed the finish line some 12 minutes behind PRIDE.

THE RACE. For those of you who have sailed aboard PRIDE during a day sail or one of our longer passages, you are familiar with the routine aboard PRIDE. You know that orderliness and routine are the norm aboard the ship. In a race that orderliness all but disappears in the heat of quick responses to constantly changing weather patterns and jockeying for best advantage within the racing fleet. The captain frequently orders course changes as he constantly reevaluates the boat's speed in the given wind and how other vessels in sight are doing. All hands stand ready for the call. When a large course change is called, it usually requires a great deal of sail handling. PRIDE's complexity makes for a lot of crew activity. Going down wind in PRIDE is much different than tacking up wind. One difference is the almost (but not quite) reverse sequence of actions during jibing as opposed to tacking. Add to this the handling of some of our more exotic sails, like the studding sails, and you have a formula for mass confusion as everyone rushes to get things done quickly in order not to lose time to the competitors. On top of the natural confusion of racing, PRIDE's crew has changed over the last couple of months and not everyone has had the same amount of "on the job" experience. Another addition to the confusion was our guest crew. They want to help and are frequently a great help. But with a maniacal task master shouting orders to an already confused crew, the state of stress and excitement can be overpowering.

PRIDE's start was flubbed due to a rigging snafu that has never occurred before. Once it was cleared and all sail trimmed properly, PRIDE sped across the starting line some five minutes after the starting gun. This delay was not a serious detriment because several of the fleet were a little late themselves and PRIDE's speed was generally greater than all the others ahead of her when she reached the line. But not all sail was up and so there was a mad scramble to get the top-gallant up. In the heat of the start and pre-start confusion, it went up backwards and required First Mate Doug Leisure to go up and redeem the situation. By the time the gant'sl was set, PRIDE had caught and passed half of the starting vessels - some eleven boats. Most were reaching over to the Kent Island shore in the northerly breeze. LADY MARYLAND had chosen to sail dead down wind by winging her sails out both sides of the ship. So she did not go over to the Eastern Shore.

Before we reached the eastern side of the Bay, LIBERTY CLIPPER from Boston was just ahead of us. She's a steel-hull traditional schooner that was going about as fast as PRIDE. I was familiar with this vessel when she was the MYSTIC CLIPPER. Back then she sailed out of Annapolis in the spring and fall, but otherwise homeported out of Mystic, Connecticut. I was quite surprised by how fast she sailed down wind. But she is a center-boarder and with her board drawn up she draws only a few feet of water compared to PRIDE's nearly 12.5 feet of draft. LIBERTY CLIPPER decided to jibe early but we continued on to the far eastern side. Our first jibe was a bit of a fiasco. But we got it done and then set the studding sail. This made a definite difference in our speed. We were able to pass everyone except the two semi-modern schooners from Annapolis, WOODWIND and IMAGINE...! We three vessels led the fleet all the way down the Bay. Our tactic were to reach from side to side of the Bay while several boats chose to go 'wing and wing' straight down wind through the center of the Bay. I was surprised at how well LADY MARYLAND was gliding along. Although we had passed her in our jibe to the east, she was not so far behind us in spite all of our efforts. When we passed LIBERTY CLIPPER, she chose to quite jibing and go wing and wing and head straight down the Bay. I envied those wing and wing vessels for there inactivity on deck as we jibed once more near Herring Bay on the west side. I was again moved to beseech the (now a little less confused) crew of very willing hands to go faster and not forget what to do and how to do it!

The fast light schooners WOODWIND and IMAGINE...! were able to reach off the wind more broadly than PRIDE and thus their points of jibing were different than ours. I also think they decided not to worry too much about the current in the Bay. It had been ebbing at the start, but was now flooding. The strength of an ebb is stronger than a flood. The usual strategy in an ebb is to stay in the middle of the Bay in the deeper water where the current is often stronger than out at the sides in the shallower areas. But in a flood the best protection is out at the sides, unless the wind is so strong it does not seem to make a difference, particularly since we are talking about less than a knot of current in the area south of Poplar Island. The light schooners were staying in the middle and I observed we were not catching them. I decided to go back to the west and out of the current. It is hard to tell if that decision was critical. But when we came back to the east again off Sharp's Island, we were still pretty close to the light, modern schooners. I was pleased.

But then we hit a sudden wind shift to the southeast! Quickly we turned to the west to bring the wind behind the square sails and took down the studding sail. After that, all sails are re-trimmed for sailing to windward. While all that activity was going on, I worried that we would not be able to lay the course and would be forced to tack over to the east and probably lose any chance of catching and passing the light schooners. But my fear was unfounded and we continued to give close chase to the two light boats. While we gave chase, life aboard became suddenly very easy. No more jibing and no tacking - merely sailing with full sail as fast as we could in the given conditions.

Once the sails were trimmed to best advantage, the only thing to do was steer a good course and keep an eye on things. Now it was possible to break the crew and guest crew into watches. Instead of our usual three section rotation I chose a two section rotation. This meant we would have greater manpower when things needed doing than if we were in three section. The off watch could be down for their fair share of sleep.

By midnight we were at Smith Point on the southern lip of the Potomac River and it was time for a watch change. The wind had freed up again by shifting more easterly through the evening and was now showing signs of going back to the northeast which was more like I expected considering the high pressure to our north and west and the new low coming up the coast from Georgia. We got the studding sail set again and roared on down the course directly for Wolf Trap Light. The wind had increased, too, and so we were going over 11 knots through the water. We began to catch the two leaders.

In the lower bay the wind moderated and we got down to as little as 7 knots. But we had passed our competition and that was the most important thing! All hands had been able to get nearly four hours of sleep too. Although I had not gotten any sleep due to the changing conditions, the reward for my vigilance and the very willing and gung-ho effort of the crew was that we crossed the finish line first. But not all was done after the finish line. The wind was favorable for sailing most of the way into downtown Norfolk, so we took in the studding sail, jib-top, and main-top and jibed again to go west to the entrance of Hampton Roads. The weather had gotten a little wet due to some light misty rain. We jibed again to go down the ship channel past the Norfolk Navy Base piers. About dawn, we struck all sail. We were docked at 0700 hours and spent till 1000 hours tidying up the ship. After that it was nap time!

What a race!

Cheers
Captain Miles

It is now more than 24 hours that I have been up due to PRIDE II's participation in the 8th annual Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race. PRIDE II crossed the finish line first! To me this is a truly wonderful accomplishment considering the "sleds" that PRIDE had to outperform to have achieved this distinction. By "sleds" I mean really modern interpretations of traditional yacht type schooners that were popular starting around the turn of this century. These new schooners have very little hull in the water and are quite similar to modern racing machines, i.e. fin keels and separate rudders. But they are rigged in the schooner fashion. One could say that they are merely disguised as schooners -- but I won't say that!

The race started yesterday afternoon at 1 PM near Annapolis. Nearly 25 vessels participated ranging in size from PRIDE's 100 feet at the waterline to sloops as small as 25 feet. This is the 8th Great Chesapeake Schooner Race and PRIDE has participated in three races. She has always done well, but finishing ahead of the pack is getting harder and harder as new schooner hybrids come onto the scene. As a replica 1812-era topsail schooner, finishing first against these hybrids is a wonderful accomplishment and should trigger spasms of pride in anyone who knows the difference between actually "being traditional" and simply "looking traditional."

At the start of the race, the wind was fresh from the north - straight down the Bay. However, PRIDE does not sail directly downwind very efficiently. So she reaches in a zigzag fashion, jibing from broad reach to broad reach. This sounds like it should be easier than going upwind - but it's really not. A Baltimore Clipper has more sails, lines, and rigging to adjust going downwind than upwind, and all in reverse order from the order we normally use to go upwind. For some reason this is very confusing to the crew. Suffice it to say, they were not nearly as confused about jibing by the time we reached Cove Point, some four jibes from the starting gun.

Our competition was divided between those that reached as we did and those that went straight down wind. Those that went straight put their sails out on both sides of the vessel, called wing and wing by schooner aficionados. It was surprising and impressive to see how well they sailed while we reached. But PRIDE can't go dead down wind effectively - at least not when she is in a hurry. There's too much over-lapping in the sail plan that causes blanketing of the sails forward by the sails behind. Also the boats that chose to go wing and wing were mostly center-board boats. When sailing directly downwind, they can hoist up their centerboards to reduce resistance through the water. PRIDE on the other hand must drag her 185 displacement tons through the water to a depth of nearly 12.5 feet! Hence we broad reach.

But not for the whole distance. We had a curious burst of opposing weather that appeared near Cove Point at the mouth of the Patuxent River. We got a sudden wind shift to the southeast! Wind in our face! With sails trimmed for going off the wind, suddenly running into an opposing breeze halted our forward advance pretty abruptly! After some moments of scrambling, we got things squared away for sailing close to the wind. Luckily the wind was easterly enough that we could sail well with no tacking. From about supper time on, PRIDE sailed as direct a course as possible.

I would normally consider getting some rest in a situation where there was no maneuvering to be concerned with. But there was no way this time because there were two hot competitors on our gunnels that kept this skipper awake all night. WOODWIND from Annapolis is well known for her speed; IMAGINE, also of Annapolis, is new and of the same design as WOODWIND. These two boats are really big canoes with appendages attached to act as a modern keel. They keep the boats right side up and prevent them from drifting sideways with the pressure of the wind on the sails. This design makes them very light for their size and very fast too, not to mention there is very little in the water to drag around. Our three boats - PRIDE, WOODWIND, and IMAGINE - had been playing cat and mouse for the lead since soon after the start. With the wind change the two light boats started to sneak away. But after a while the wind came back more from the northeast and freshened. Under those ideal conditions, PRIDE began to do her thing and slowly closed the gap. It took all night, but we finally passed the last of the two about an hour from the finish. IMAGINE crossed the line 12 minutes behind PRIDE, which crossed at 4:33:42 A.M. It was a wonderful feeling of accomplishment shared by all aboard to have an authentic vintage sailing vessel able to sail as well as two new hybrid vessels. Except for materials, little has changed in the world of sailing.

I must quit writing and go to sleep!

Cheers
Captain Miles

Past Logs

| September 1997 | August 1997 | July 1997 | June 1997 | May 1997 | March - April 1997
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